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Robson shows fight in Jankovic defeat

Laura Robson contributed to her own downfall © Getty Images

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Britain's Laura Robson gave former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic a tough battle on Wednesday, but ultimately her second serve let her down in a first-round exit at the e-Boks Open.

Robson could barely have wished for a more difficult challenge in Copenhagen, drawing third seed Jankovic in her opening round encounter. However, after an awful start she gave the Serb some real problems before eventually losing 6-4 7-6(8).

Jankovic was the boss of her less experienced rival early on, breaking in the opening game and then again in the third for a 3-0 lead. Robson struggled to match her opponent's athleticism and aggression, but she slowly managed to play her way into the contest.

The players shared five further breaks in the set, with three going to the Brit as she fought back to 4-5, aided by eight double-faults from Jankovic. However, the damage had been done by a second serve that saw Robson win just three of 13 points in the set, and Jankovic served out for the lead.

Once again Robson left her concentration at her stool early in the second, broken at the first time of asking, but this time after another exchange of breaks she managed to level and force a tiebreaker, thanks largely to a much improved percentage of first serves in. The scores remained locked deep into the breaker, but Jankovic eventually took it 10-8 to progress to the next round.

Fifth and sixth seeds Kaia Kanepi and Mona Barthel are safely through to round three after wins over Timea Babos and Alberta Brianti respectively. They were later joined by Petra Martic, victorious over Johanna Konta, and Alize Cornet, a 6-2 2-6 7-5 winner over Patricia Mayr-Achleitner.

There was one other first-round tie completed, with Bojana Jovanovski a 6-3 6-4 winner over Stefanie Voegele.

At the Barcelona Open, seventh seed Sara Errani made light work of Estrella Cabeza Candela, winning 6-0 6-2. She was later joined in the third round by Carla Suarez Navarro and Simona Halep.

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